Star Citizen 3.17.2 Release Candidate & 3.18 Evocati Incoming

Star Citizen’s Alpha 3.17.2 is about to go to live, we are waiting on a release candidate good enough for live… but I also want to talk about what comes next and Alpha 3.18.

When Can We Expect alpha 3.17.2 live?

This is likely going to be going to live on Thursday / Friday now 28/29th July, at least that’s what it looks like.

Why Are We waiting on the live build?

CI are trying to get Alpha 3.17.2 to Live currently and there is a balancing act of them trying to get all of the bugs they can solved and the servers in the most stable and playable states they can.

That is somewhat difficult as CI have a variety of issues and they are looking to increase server cap size as well as implement new netcode improvements along with a whole host of features for the new patch. More over they want to get AI functional as possible to.

When CI improves one element of their patch like smoothing animations, and general stability this can cause more desync or hit reg problems, at the moment in game there are a lot of issues with shield holes for example on ships.

We have previously had patches that are really unstable, some where the NPCs are entirely unresponsive, where elevators didn’t work trapping you inside.

What CI have now is a really good build although there are still improvements that can be made especially with hit-reg and shield holes on ships. And any AI improvements would be grand too as although functional, they take a few seconds to react and then if you are in range they can be deadly accurate… out of range and they don’t shoot you at all.

What’s New in the latest PTU? Star Citizen Alpha 3.17.2u PTU

Reduced the HP of multiple parts on the Esperia Blade

Hull-A Empyrean, Horizon, and Dusk Paints should no longer be missing
The rear of the Drake Mule should no longer start to float if the vehicle navigates over steep inclines / hills
NPCs on dropships should no longer be completely unresponsive for an extended period
Fixed an issue causing players to have an infinite load screen after recovering from a client crash while in a ship or vehicle
Fixed 1 Client & 3 Server Crashes

The Known Issues is in a manageable place, with CI hopefully able to fix these in the next couple of days:

Ships floating in the hangar if spawned after leaving engines on.
The Khartu-al spawn on the hangar floor sideways.
Some Delivery Boxes Cannot Be Placed to Progress Missions.
Weapons are held like a pistol whilst moving in EVA.
Bunkers are sometimes missing NPC spawns to complete the mission.
FPS Weapons holster / unholster randomly.
Ships on landing pads can end up in “unknown state”.

This is very close to being a release candidate for a patch. Everything is pretty solid, clearing out some of those known issues, getting the desynced pew pews in a better way along with any more NPC & Server Tweaks would all be great and CI are likely going to get another build or 2 out before release addressing some of that.

There have been a whole heap of Siege of Orison Tests and I think it’s looking pretty slick for that dynamic Event.

So I am expecting that live build in the next 48 hours or so, with a little mini-sale on some ships and vehicles and probably the siege on the weekend. They are going to be running the siege of orison and other dynamic events on and off like the nine tails lockdown and jumptown. Please remember there is a persistence wipe for 3.17.2 for everything earned in game other than Reputation.

So what comes next?

Alpha 3.18 Testing is Incoming to evocati shortly or at least that is the plan. I had hoped that would be in July but let’s face it it’s going to be August Now.

It’s going to be a 3 month or so testing cycle so bare that in mind so Alpha 3.18 live is going to be turning up sometime in October it seems BUT we don’t know how long it will be in evocati for… probably at least a month or 2.

We know that PES, Salvage and the Cargo Refactor are all being tested in 3.18 but these is likely going to be a whole load of new content beyond that and lots of gameplay expanding out from those features too. CI have just started their 3.18 news cycle and we know that we are going to see river updates that are part of 3.18 in this weeks Inside Star citizen.

There are a lot of issues that might occur in 3.18… and features might get nerfed or dropped if they have to… but hopefully we will see what I expect to be AN EXTREMELY BUGGY evocati test phase eventually turn into a very playable wider PTU.

It’s going to be PES that will cause the most problems tho, tracking locational data of objects and having them droppable and findable in your next session potentially could cause a lot of headaches. And are CI planning to drop a load of additional networking updates at the same time?

I won’t be able to cover the 3.18 leaks and evocati phase as I am NDA’d but I will be able to cover anything CI show and we will be able to dive deeper once the patch is in a wider ptu.

Boom, that’s it for your Star Citizen Updates today. 3.17.2… soon! 3.18 is incoming too.